<h1>Obiafu-Obrikom Oil and Gas Project,Nigeria</h1>

<p>The Obiafu-Obrikom Oil and Gas Project is an onshore conventional oil and gas project in Nigeria. The project is associated with OML 61 in the Niger Delta and is historically linked to Nigerian Agip Oil Company,Oando,and NNPC interests. Available project data classifies Obiafu-Obrikom as mothballed,with 2024 identified as the status year. In operational terms,mothballed means the project is not being treated as an active producing project-level asset,although surrounding OML 61 remains a broader producing oil and gas licence with established infrastructure. The project is relevant to Nigeria’s onshore upstream sector because OML 61 contains mature oil,condensate,and gas resources,including the Obiafu-Obrikom or Ob-Ob field area.</p>

<h2>Quick Facts</h2>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Item</th>
<th>Details</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Project Name</td>
<td>Obiafu-Obrikom Oil and Gas Project</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Country</td>
<td>Nigeria</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Subnational Unit</td>
<td>N/A</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Fuel Type</td>
<td>Oil and gas</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Production Type</td>
<td>Conventional</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Status</td>
<td>Mothballed</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Status Year</td>
<td>2024</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Operator</td>
<td>Nigerian Agip Oil Company</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Owner(s)</td>
<td>NNPC Ltd 60%; Nigerian Agip Oil Company Ltd 20%; Oando Energy Resources Inc 20%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Parent Company</td>
<td>NNPC Ltd; Oando PLC</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Discovery Year</td>
<td>N/A</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Final Investment Decision Year</td>
<td>N/A</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Production Start Year</td>
<td>N/A</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Onshore/Offshore</td>
<td>Onshore</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Basin</td>
<td>Niger Delta</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Block(s)</td>
<td>OML 61</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Coordinates</td>
<td>5.4174000,6.5945000</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

<h2>Project Overview</h2>

<p>Obiafu-Obrikom is a conventional oil and gas project associated with OML 61,one of the established onshore licences in Nigeria’s Niger Delta. The project is commonly linked with the Obiafu-Obrikom,or Ob-Ob,field area. OML 61 has long been part of the Nigerian Agip Oil Company joint venture structure and has historically included oil,condensate,and natural gas resources.</p>

<p>The project is classified as mothballed. For an upstream asset,mothballing usually indicates that the project has been preserved,suspended,or taken out of active production or development service rather than permanently abandoned. This distinction matters for asset integrity,regulatory,commercial,and redevelopment analysis. A mothballed project may still retain strategic value if reservoir resources,licences,nearby infrastructure,and commercial conditions support future reactivation,but no restart plan should be assumed without confirmed operator or regulatory information.</p>

<p>Public project-scope details for the Obiafu-Obrikom project itself are limited. Available sources support its association with OML 61,onshore Niger Delta operations,Nigerian Agip Oil Company operatorship,and NNPC and Oando participation. Broader OML 61 information indicates that the licence area includes multiple producing fields,flowstations,pipelines,oil gathering facilities,gas processing facilities,and the Ob-Ob gas plant. These broader licence-level facilities are relevant to the project context,but they should not all be treated as project-specific facilities unless explicitly confirmed for Obiafu-Obrikom.</p>

<p>The project’s strategic relevance comes from its location within Nigeria’s mature Niger Delta petroleum province. The region contains legacy onshore oil and gas assets,export routes,and gas monetisation infrastructure. Obiafu-Obrikom is also relevant because of its connection to recent ownership changes affecting former Eni onshore Nigerian assets. Oando announced in 2024 that its acquisition of Nigerian Agip Oil Company increased its participating interests in OMLs 60,61,62,and 63 from 20% to 40%.</p>

<h2>Location and Basin</h2>

<p>The Obiafu-Obrikom Oil and Gas Project is located onshore in Nigeria at approximately 5.4174000 latitude and 6.5945000 longitude. The project is associated with OML 61,which is positioned in the Niger Delta. The Niger Delta is Nigeria’s principal petroleum-producing region and contains a dense concentration of onshore,swamp,shallow-water,and offshore oil and gas assets.</p>

<p>OML 61 is described by Oando Energy Resources as an onshore licence south of OML 60,covering approximately 1,499 square kilometres. Public OML 61 descriptions state that exploration began with the Ebocha oil and gas condensate field in 1965 and continued with discoveries including Obiafu-Obrikom,Idu,and Oshi in the early 1970s. The licence contains light and medium sweet oil,condensates,and natural gas in several producing fields.</p>

<p>The basin context is important because Niger Delta assets often combine mature brownfield production,complex host-community interfaces,ageing flowlines,gas handling requirements,crude evacuation systems,and security risks. For Obiafu-Obrikom,publicly available sources identify the block as OML 61 and place it within the onshore Niger Delta setting. More granular public information on field-level geology,reservoir compartments,and development concepts is limited.</p>

<h2>Ownership and Operatorship</h2>

<p>The project is associated with Nigerian Agip Oil Company as operator,with ownership interests identified as NNPC Ltd 60%,Nigerian Agip Oil Company Ltd 20%,and Oando Energy Resources Inc 20%. This structure is consistent with historical public descriptions of the NAOC joint venture for OML 61.</p>

<p>The ownership and operatorship picture has been affected by Oando’s acquisition of Nigerian Agip Oil Company from Eni. In September 2023,Eni announced an agreement to sell NAOC Ltd to Oando PLC. In July 2024,Reuters reported that Eni received formal approval from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission for the sale. In August 2024,Oando announced completion of the transaction and stated that its participating interests in OMLs 60,61,62,and 63 increased from 20% to 40%.</p>

<p>Because asset-level records and corporate transaction announcements may describe the same assets at different points in time,readers should distinguish between the historical NAOC joint venture ownership split and the post-acquisition Oando position. Public project sources still commonly refer to Nigerian Agip Oil Company in connection with OML 61,while Oando’s 2024 announcement states that it assumed a larger role following completion of the acquisition. NNPC remains the dominant state participant in the licence structure.</p>

<h2>Development History</h2>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Milestone</th>
<th>Year</th>
<th>Details</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Discovery milestone</td>
<td>Early 1970s</td>
<td>Public OML 61 information describes the discovery of Obiafu-Obrikom,also known as Ob-Ob,during the early 1970s exploration phase.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Development milestone</td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>Detailed project-level development approval information is not clearly confirmed in available public project sources.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Final investment decision milestone</td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>A final investment decision date is not clearly confirmed in available public project sources.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Production milestone</td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>Project-level production start information for Obiafu-Obrikom is not clearly confirmed in available public project sources.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Recent status milestone</td>
<td>2024</td>
<td>The project is classified as mothballed.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

<p>The Obiafu-Obrikom area forms part of the long development history of OML 61. Oando’s public OML 61 asset description states that the licence’s exploration history began with the Ebocha oil and gas condensate discovery in 1965 and continued with discoveries including Obiafu-Obrikom,Idu,and Oshi in the early 1970s. This places the project within a mature onshore petroleum system rather than a frontier exploration setting.</p>

<p>In 2019,Eni and its NAOC joint venture partners reported a gas and condensate discovery in the deeper sequences of the Obiafu-Obrikom fields through the Obiafu-41 Deep well. Public reporting stated that the well encountered hydrocarbon-bearing sands in an Oligocene deltaic sequence. This discovery added a deeper-pool context to an already established onshore field area.</p>

<p>The 2023 to 2024 period was significant for the wider licence ownership structure. Eni agreed to sell NAOC Ltd to Oando in 2023,regulatory approval was reported in 2024,and Oando announced completion of the acquisition in August 2024. These ownership developments affect the corporate context around OML 61 and related assets,including the Obiafu-Obrikom project area.</p>

<h2>Infrastructure and Facilities</h2>

<p>Public project-specific infrastructure details for Obiafu-Obrikom are limited. However,Oando’s OML 61 asset description provides broader licence-level infrastructure information that is relevant to the project setting. OML 61 includes production and export facilities associated with the NAOC joint venture,including production and injection wells,flowlines,flowstations,oil gathering hubs,pipelines,gas processing facilities,and the Ob-Ob gas plant.</p>

<p>Oando describes OML 61 facilities as including 203 production and injection wells with associated flowlines,of which 100 wells were identified as active in its public asset description. The licence also includes five flowstations: Ebocha,Idu,Irri/Isoko,Ob-Ob,and Oshi. These flowstations are reported with processing capacities ranging from 40 Mbbls/d at Oshi to 120 Mbbls/d at Ebocha.</p>

<p>The same OML 61 description identifies 548 kilometres of oil pipelines connecting flowstations to the Ob-Ob gas plant and the Brass River Terminal,the Ebocha oil centre,the Ogoda manifold,the Ob-Ob gas plant,an Akri flowstation,a gas plant at Kwale-Okpai,and the Kwale-Okpai Independent Power Plant. These facilities demonstrate that the project sits within a mature production and gas-handling network. They should be read as OML 61 licence-level infrastructure unless a source specifically assigns them to the Obiafu-Obrikom project itself.</p>

<p>For asset integrity professionals,the infrastructure context is important. A mothballed oil and gas project located within a mature onshore licence may involve preservation,inspection,corrosion management,well integrity review,flowline assessment,restart assurance,environmental controls,and regulatory compliance before any reactivation. Public sources do not confirm a current reactivation campaign for Obiafu-Obrikom.</p>

<h2>Production and Reserves</h2>

<p>Public project data identifies Obiafu-Obrikom as an oil and gas project with conventional production type. Global Energy Monitor lists project reserves of 60 million barrels of condensate and 28,317 million cubic metres of gas,with the data year identified as 2019. NS Energy separately reported in 2019 that the Obiafu-41 Deep discovery amounted to nearly one trillion cubic feet of gas and 60 million barrels of associated condensate in the deeper drilled sequences.</p>

<p>Current project-level production figures for Obiafu-Obrikom are limited in public sources. The project is classified as mothballed,so it should not be described as an active producing project-level asset based only on the available project data. At the same time,OML 61 as a broader licence is described by Oando as having producing fields and established production infrastructure. The distinction between project-level status and wider licence-level activity is important for technical readers.</p>

<p>No verified public source reviewed for this article confirms a current plateau production rate,current oil output,current gas output,number of producing wells specifically assigned to Obiafu-Obrikom,or a current restart schedule for the project. Any production or reserve estimate should therefore be interpreted within the limits of the specific source,reporting year,and asset scope.</p>

<h2>Recent Developments</h2>

<p>Recent public developments around Obiafu-Obrikom are mainly connected to the wider OML 61 and NAOC asset transaction. In 2023,Eni announced that it had signed an agreement to sell Nigerian Agip Oil Company Ltd to Oando PLC. The sale covered NAOC’s onshore oil and gas exploration and production activities in Nigeria and power generation interests,while Eni stated that its 5% participating interest in the Shell Production Development Company joint venture was not part of the transaction.</p>

<p>In July 2024,Reuters reported that the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission had formally approved Eni’s sale of NAOC to Oando. In August 2024,Oando announced completion of the acquisition and stated that the transaction increased Oando’s participating interests in OMLs 60,61,62,and 63 from 20% to 40%. Oando also described the acquired joint venture asset base as including discovered oil and gas fields,production stations,pipelines,gas processing plants,the Brass River Oil Terminal,and the Kwale-Okpai power plants.</p>

<p>In 2025,Reuters reported that Oando completed repairs on a pipeline in Bayelsa State after sabotage-related oil spill incidents and planned sectional replacement to reduce future risk. This update is not specific to Obiafu-Obrikom,but it is relevant to the broader operating risk environment for Oando’s former NAOC onshore asset base in the Niger Delta.</p>

<p>No recent public source reviewed for this article confirms that Obiafu-Obrikom itself has returned to active project-level production. The most reliable current classification available for the project remains mothballed.</p>

<h2>Technical and Commercial Significance</h2>

<p>Obiafu-Obrikom matters technically because it is associated with an established onshore licence containing mature oil and gas infrastructure,deeper gas and condensate potential,and long-running field development history. The 2019 Obiafu-41 Deep discovery highlighted deeper reservoir potential in the Obiafu-Obrikom area and linked the project to Nigeria’s wider gas supply and condensate development opportunity set.</p>

<p>Commercially,the project sits inside a licence affected by a major ownership transition from Eni to Oando. Oando’s completed NAOC acquisition increased its participating interests in OMLs 60,61,62,and 63 and strengthened its position in Nigeria’s onshore upstream sector. For OML 61,this means Obiafu-Obrikom is part of an asset base increasingly shaped by indigenous Nigerian operatorship and NNPC participation rather than the legacy international oil company operating model.</p>

<p>The project also has relevance for gas monetisation. Broader OML 61 infrastructure includes gas processing facilities and the Ob-Ob gas plant. Nigeria continues to place strategic emphasis on domestic gas utilisation,power generation,and export-linked hydrocarbon infrastructure. However,no public source reviewed for this article confirms a current Obiafu-Obrikom-specific gas development plan,production restart,or final investment decision.</p>

<h2>Challenges and Risks</h2>

<p>The main project-level challenge is mothballed status. A mothballed upstream asset can require significant technical assurance before reactivation,including mechanical integrity assessment,corrosion review,well integrity verification,instrumentation checks,pipeline and flowline inspection,environmental review,and confirmation of safe operating envelopes. Public information does not confirm the condition of Obiafu-Obrikom’s specific wells or facilities.</p>

<p>The wider Niger Delta onshore operating environment also presents recognised risks. Reuters reported sabotage-related spill incidents affecting an Oando pipeline in Bayelsa State in 2025. While that report is not specific to Obiafu-Obrikom,it illustrates the broader security,spill-response,and pipeline-integrity risks faced by onshore operators in parts of the Niger Delta.</p>

<p>Ownership transition is another practical risk area. Oando’s acquisition of NAOC may create opportunities for asset optimisation,but integration of legacy onshore assets can involve operational,regulatory,environmental,community,and technical due diligence challenges. These issues are particularly relevant for brownfield assets with long production histories and complex infrastructure networks.</p>

<p>Commercial risks include oil and gas price volatility,domestic gas market constraints,financing requirements for any reactivation or redevelopment,and uncertainty over the economics of mothballed assets. Public sources do not confirm a current redevelopment budget,final investment decision date,or production restart plan for Obiafu-Obrikom.</p>

<h2>Related Topics</h2>

<ul>
<li>OML 61 oil and gas licence in Nigeria</li>
<li>Niger Delta onshore oil and gas production</li>
<li>Nigerian Agip Oil Company and Oando asset transition</li>
<li>Brownfield oil and gas asset integrity</li>
<li>Mothballed upstream project restart assurance</li>
<li>Gas and condensate development in mature petroleum provinces</li>
<li>NNPC joint venture upstream assets</li>
</ul>

<h2>Sources</h2>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.gem.wiki/Obiafu-Obrikom_Oil_and_Gas_Project_(Nigeria)" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Global Energy Monitor: Obiafu-Obrikom Oil and Gas Project</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.oandoenergyresources.com/projects/oml-61" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Oando Energy Resources: OML 61</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.oandoplc.com/press-release/oando-plc-completes-783-million-acquisition-of-enis-subsidiary-nigerian-agip-oil-company-naoc" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Oando PLC: Completion of NAOC Acquisition</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.eni.com/en-IT/media/press-release/2023/09/eni-signs-agreement-sell-naoc.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Eni: Agreement to Sell NAOC Ltd to Oando PLC</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/eni-gets-approval-sell-nigerian-unit-naoc-oando-2024-07-24/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Reuters: Eni Receives Approval to Sell NAOC to Oando</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/nigerian-oil-producer-oando-completes-pipeline-repairs-after-spills-2025-05-13/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Reuters: Oando Pipeline Repairs After Sabotage-Related Spills</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/news/eni-discovery-onshore-niger-delta/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">NS Energy: Eni Gas and Condensate Discovery in Onshore Niger Delta</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nuprc.gov.ng/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Concession-Situation-December-2023.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission: Concession Situation December 2023</a></li>
</ul>

Mothballed onshore oil and gas asset in Nigeria; quick look at scope,status and upstream relevance.

Obiafu-Obrikom Oil & Gas,Nigeria: Mothballed Asset and Restart Context

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Obiafu-Obrikom Oil & Gas,Nigeria: Mothballed Asset and Restart Context

Obiafu-Obrikom Oil & Gas,Nigeria: Mothballed Asset and Restart Context

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